April 20, 2012

German 'hypocrisy' over Greek military spending has critics up in arms

Helena Smith reports from Greece on "Athens' fondness for weaponry, and willingness of Germany and France to feed it, under fire as Greece struggles with debt crisis."

Excerpt: "Greek profligacy may be blamed for triggering the debt crisis that now threatens to tear the eurozone apart, but if there is one area where Berlin is less excoriating of state largesse it is in Athens's extravagant taste for arms.

Behind the frequent exhortations that Greece rein in spending after living "beyond its means" – admonishments made most loudly by Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble – there is another reality that paints Germany in a less than flattering light, according to MPs, military experts, economists and scholars.

'If there is one country that has benefited from the huge amounts Greece spends on defence it is Germany,' said Dimitris Papadimoulis, an MP with the Coalition of the Radical Left party." ...

Read article here
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 April 2012